January 24, 2006

I have released the b22 patch tonight. The following are the included features and fixes:

Corrected the problem that cause the "Please load VESA.COM" error even when you have a VESA VBE enabled video card. This eliminates the need for vesawrap except when you go to run the game installer.

Corrected bug that occurs with ships equipped with the Cloak or Phasing Cloak technology. These ships will no longer be visible to long range scans on the Galaxy Map.

Corrected bug that occurs during combat with ships equipped with the Phasing Cloak technology. These ships should now always revert to regular cloaking after 10 rounds as the manual states.

Added a /noscan switch. This switch will disable the scan button in combat so that detailed scans of ships will no longer be possible. Only quick scans will be possible by mousing over the ships.

Added a /nohousing switch. The housing option will no longer be available from the build list so housing production will not be possible. Also, this switch adds +150% bonus to population growth. The bonus will be added into the growth formula exactly the same way that the bonus from universal antidote is.

Added a cluster galaxy for single player games only which has more stars in the same area as a large galaxy.

Added a /nonebula switch. When use the map is generated without any nebulas.

Changed the /minstart swtich (again) so that rich/ultra rich large/huge race G planets are not generated.